Expectations heading into this week showed projections of about 80,000 new jobs being created in the United States in May. As it turns out, according to the new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the totals far exceeded those expectations. CNBC reported:
Job growth unexpectedly surged in May as the U.S. labor market continued a solid year of expansion, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.
Nonfarm payrolls jumped a seasonally adjusted 172,000 for the period, down slightly from the upwardly revised 179,000 in April and far above the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 80,000.
The unemployment rate remained at 4.3%, which was in line with projections. That’s still higher than it was when Donald Trump’s second term began, but it’s low by historical standards.
As recently as February, the U.S. job market lost 156,000 jobs, raising new concerns about a possible recession. Fortunately, we’ve seen improvements ever since, including positive revisions for the job numbers in March and April, effectively erasing recession concerns.
More than a third of the way into this year, the average monthly total for 2026 is just under 114,000, which is roughly in line with the “break even” metric needed to keep up with population growth.
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All told, the U.S. economy has added 685,000 jobs over Trump’s 17-month second term. Over the previous 17 months, the economy added nearly 2.3 million jobs.
To contextualize the data, I put together this chart to show month-to-month totals since the 2020 election. The blue columns point to Biden’s presidency, while the red columns point to Trump’s.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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